“We get Darren like an hour before he has to read for the show. So, it’s not like he could learn any blocking, learn costume changes, learn lines, learn songs, learn anything. He’s just gonna get there, go, “I’m hungry,” eat a sandwich, and then walk on.”

“Our rehearsal time kept getting cut down more and more. And we only had Darren for an hour before the show…
We never saw Darren actually reading the lines, the only thing we had time to do with Darren was walk him through and tell him where to stand in every part, so Darren did a great job!

We kept on lying to people, pretty much, we kept on saying “Oh it’s just gonna be a reading. It’s just gonna be a reading, don’t worry guys…” The more and more we were like “We’re never gonna actually get to do this show,” so we were like “This is our last shot, this is the last time we’re gonna have some of this people, it’s the last time we’re gonna be able to get Darren.” So we just kept on making it bigger and bigger without telling anybody.

Darren thought he was just going to be sitting, reading, until the day of. He got there and we said “Alright, Darren, here’s your costume back. We’ve gotta draw that scar on your head. You’re gonna stand here and here.” And he was like “You guys. You stinkers. I knew you were gonna do this.””

I know that we are fangirling right now over what an amazing job the actors did and rightly so, they were incredible. But I want to take a moment and recognize the incredible work that went on behind the scenes. Having been both a techie and an actor, the audience sees the stuff the actors do and that’s who they respond to, but so much of a show is done behind the scenes and the creative team and techies who worked on AVPSY deserve some recognition:

Matt Lang and Nick Lang who directed this incredible show. I met Matt a few times while I was walking around the Hilton before AVPSY premiered and the man felt so much pressure and was so nervous that we wouldn’t like it. Well, Matt, I think it’s safe to say that you and Nick directed a phenomenal show that we all loved.

Matt Lang, Nick Lang and Brian Holden, who wrote the show. This show was hilarious, witty, heartbreaking, fulfilling and awe-inspiring all at once and that is so difficult to do. Well done you three!

Clark Baxtresser, Pierce Siebers and AJ Holmes, who wrote the songs (and AJ and Clark musically directed the show). I can’t adequately describe how much I loved the songs, but they’ve been stuck in my head since the first time I watched the show (“Gilderoy” and “When You Have to Go All The Way Home” especially).

Clark Baxtresser, AJ Holmes, Phil Chester, Matt Script and Mike Sportiello, who comprised the band. I don’t know if many of you know this, but the band learned the show in one day. One. Day. If you’ve ever done a musical or have been in a band or something like that, you know how impossible and incredible that is to do. These men are insanely talented.

Corey Lubowich, who did scenic design. This is one of the most underrated parts of doing theatre; most people don’t know or understand how important to the show a set is in terms of setting the story and the mood and the scene and Corey did a wonderful job.

June Saito, who did costume design. Those costumes were beyond words. I mean, look at Aragog’s costume! Not only was the decision to have costumes made pretty soon before the con, but a lot of the Hogwarts regalia didn’t make it to the actual show and they had to borrow from fans at the con. June made do with what she had and made it work well; that’s talent right there.

Mark Swiderski and Kevin DeKimpe, who did the sound design/sound editing and sound board, respectively: There was a tweet that the StarKid twitter retweeted about not wishing the sound board and sound stuff on anyone and I completely agree. Sound is a lot more complicated than it appears to the audience because you have to get the levels just right. Especially with AVPSY, you have to adjust the levels as the actors talk and that’s really difficult, so kudos to Kevin for doing a really nice job. In addition to that, there were the crazy mic issues. That’s the reason that the show wasn’t able to come out until now, because of the mic problems, and Mark did an awesome job dealing with those issues.

Lana McKinnon, who did hair and makeup design: Hair and makeup are super important in creating the right mood and just the right look for the show and Lana did an incredible job with that.

Corey Lubowich and Sarah Petty, who were stage managers: A lot of people don’t know this, but being a stage manager is really hard work. Stage managers are often the head of the tech crew and so they’re responsible for making sure that all the tech stuff is taken care of. Not only do they do the tech work, but they help the actors coordinate everything, like making sure all the props are in place and things like that. Well done, Corey and Sarah!

Marguerite Woodward, Andrew Hill and Proma Khosla, who made up the run crew: The run crew refers to the people who actually do a lot of the technical work during the actual show itself. Whether that be lighting or moving set pieces, helping the actors with quick changes, etc, the run crew is absolutely vital to making the show run smoothly. Often the sign of an incredible run crew is that you don’t even notice that they’re there and these three were fabulous.

Liam White, Tony Pisaneschi, Erdem Ertal, Corey Braun and Mark LeGrand, who did the video. These guys stood on platforms for five freaking hours with no break, no sitting down, nothing, and taped the show. Doing video is also hard because you can’t swing the camera too fast or else it’ll blur the action and you have to decide which area of the stage and whose reactions you’re going to capture at any given moment. That’s not easy to do and these five guys were rock stars.

These are all the people I think deserved recognition for their work in making A Very Potter Senior Year the show that it became. If you think I missed anyone, be sure to either put it in our inbox or reblog with your thoughts.

Please join me in giving these guys a huge round of applause (via reblogs and likes) for all of their hard work!